|
|
| |
|
Best veiw with
Firefox 3
|
|
|
Navy Buries Lies
The Military continues to plague the environment where ever they nest
and their destruction needs to end by striking against the manufacturers
who make black powder, and drop their munitions all over the planet like
poop. The chemicals used are in the thousands, and many never dissipate
to a safe level.
 |
City Begs for EPA Intervention on Navy Mess
20 July 2007 - By Marc Albert - alamedasun.com
City officials, aghast at a Navy plan to shroud a toxic
dump site at the former Naval Air Station Alameda with a thin layer of
dirt, are calling on federal and state officials to intervene and
clean up the site.
In a strongly worded letter, the Alameda Reuse and Redevelopment
Authority said "fatal flaws" existed in proposed plans by the Navy to
bury the site under four feet of dirt.
The site, at the northwest corner of Alameda Point, at the edge of a
landing strip, was the main disposal area on the base from 1943 until
1956. More recent veterans said street sweeping debris along with
other detritus of military operations were regularly dumped on the
site well into the 1980s.
"Our concern is the health and safety of our community," said Vice
Mayor Lena Tam. "The Environmental Protection Agency has the expertise
in developing the level of remediation that would be appropriate for
that site and that's why we solicited their help," she said.
According to an official city report, the Navy has verbally agreed to
dig a trench into the disputed site to determine the size and content
of the dump. The Navy contends that any drums of toxic waste dumped on
the site have long ago rusted through or been crushed and materials
have dissipated, presumably into the Estuary. |
|
|
Comment: Dissipated is a big assumption and
double-speak.
Officials estimate that up to 110,000 cubic yards of waste is spread
over approximately 12-acres. Cost estimates for a clean up range
between $35 million and $50 million.
City officials are further miffed that the Navy has not estimated the
cost of consolidating the waste into a single dump on Alameda Point
and instead only calculated the cost of excavating and removing the
waste to a disposal site elsewhere. City officials contend that the
waste could be properly contained at a second dumpsite on the Point at
a lower cost.
"Materials reportedly disposed of at the [West Beach Landfill]
included ... solvents; oily waste and sludge, paint waste, strippers,
thinners, and sludge; plating wastes; industrial strippers/cleaners;
acids; mercury; polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated fluids ...
batteries; low level radiological wastes ... pesticides ... infectious
waste ... ."
Anna Marie Cook, remedial project manager for the EPA said the Navy's
plan to cap the dump has been tentatively approved, but that may
change when officials have a better understanding of the amount and
levels of contamination. "We may or may not change the proposed remedy
depending on what we find in the trenching," Cook said. "I don't think
any of us are happy that a dump was placed next to a body of water,"
she said. The trenching work is expected to begin within two months.
Cook also said the EPA may reject the city's alternative plan to
consolidate the two dumps, because the second site has some very
sensitive ecological resources."
Councilman Doug deHaan, a retired civilian base employee, said the
only radiological waste dumped on the site that he is aware of is
radium, a radioactive element once used to make various objects such
as dials on aircraft instrument panels glow in the dark.
The Navy contends that drums of waste were intentionally crushed
during disposal and that because of the high water table; any intact
drums would have long ago succumbed to rust and corrosion by exposure
to salty groundwater.
City officials, in their letter to the EPA counter that the Navy
didn't have a "drum rupturing policy," at the time and that "most of
the waste is not in contact with groundwater."
"They EPA has actually said that the Navy has to do some drilling or
excavation to determine if there are still toxic drums on that site,"
said Councilwoman Marie Gilmore.
"The city is trying to get them to remove whatever is under there and
not simply put more dirt on top of there, but like everything else
it's a process," she added.
In their letter, city officials told EPA that the Navy's proposal,
which would contain the site beneath "a permeable, four-foot thick
soil cover with no lateral containment — may not be suitable."
"I don't think [the Navy's plan] is adequate, but I want an expert
assessment of that. We have a fairly high water table in Alameda there
are issues about leaching," Tam said.
Contact Marc Albert at malbert@alamedasun.com
|
|
|
References:
Military Toxics
Project
Military's Legacy
|
|
|
The
The
Labors in the Spirits of
Science
Living on the Lost Planet 
